Rigid and submersible floating cover for pools used for recreational, sports or industrial purposes

ABSTRACT

A rigid and submersible floating cover for pools comprises one or more substantially rigid decks slabs with its upper surface being substantially flat and horizontal when floating; and active floating means of controllable flotability arranged below or in-between the substantially rigid deck slabs, thereby defining a unit of rigid and submersible floating deck slab, made up of one of the substantially rigid deck slabs and by one or more active floating means; and removable supporting means for the substantially rigid deck slabs at the bottom of the pool, which are removably associated with each one of them, with the supporting means consisting in supporting elements resting on the bottom of the pool, with each one of the substantially rigid deck slabs having at least three of the supporting elements distributed in a non-colinear arrangement for their supporting ends defining a supporting plane.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a rigid and submersible floating cover for pools used for recreational, sports or industrial purposes. In the case of pools for industrial use, the following may be mentioned among others: those for storing industrial fluids and nursery ponds or hatchery of aquatic flora and fauna.

2. Description of the Prior Art

A number of means are already known to cover pools, both to avoid people accidentally falling down in them and to prevent the liquid contained therein becoming cold, dirty or evaporated. Most of these means consist in a substantially flexible or foldable cover which can be extended over the pool surface and kept tight by ropes fastened to or going through its perimeter and anchored to the soil, near the pool border. These covering means are to be stored outside the pool when the latter is to be kept uncovered.

Another kind of means to prevent the pool liquid becoming dirty and reducing evaporation of the same involves placing floating blocks on such cover, but this type of solution is not appropriate to prevent somebody accidentally falling down into the pool. Like in the other solutions mentioned, covering means or floating blocks are to be stored outside the pool when it is to be kept uncovered.

Although these means to cover pools have given good results and proven to be cost-effective for the purposes mentioned above (keeping the liquid surface clean and with low levels of evaporation and also to avoid accidental falling of people), the area over the pool's covered surface may not be used to develop other activities, since covers do not use to be properly resistant or rigid. In most cases, this involves a high proportion of surface [surface value of the land/use value]. In addition to this, all these solutions require storage room outside the pool in order to store the cover means while not being used.

On the contrary, the present invention allows the alternative use of the pool surface when it is full of liquid, by offering a rigid resistant surface to develop other activities, such as a surface for amusements or other inherent uses for a firm land. When the rigid floating cover is not to be used and the pool is to remain uncovered, it is foreseen that the covering means of the present invention may be submersed, with the cover remaining in the bottom of the pool.

Another important advantage offered by the present invention is that the cover may remain in its lifted position even though the pool liquid is partially or totally drained. This is so, because the cover of this invention is supported by removable supporting means.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention consists in installing one or more rigid deck slabs provided with active floating means and, optionally, supplementary passive rigid deck slabs. These rigid floating deck slabs may comprise the whole area of the pool or only part of it in the case you want to have a part of the pool active for using it as appropriate.

One of the applications of the present invention, whether household, public or sports, is the possibility of using the rigid floating cover for recreational or social purposes, such as turning the pool area into a dancing floor, a field to practice sports or a terrace among others. In the case of industrial-use pools, in addition to the aforementioned alternative uses, the rigid and stable surface may be used for alternative industrial purposes, such as the installation of belts for selecting and packing consumptions items among other industrial uses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Below, the present invention shall be described by reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a parallel perspective scheme in a partial cut according to a vertical plane of a pool with a rigid floating cover under a first embodiment of the present invention, wherein the cover can be seen in operating position;

FIG. 2 is a similar view to that of FIG. 1, corresponding to the same first embodiment of the invention, wherein the cover can be appreciated in a submersed position; and

FIG. 3 shows a parallel perspective scheme in a partial cut according to a vertical plane of a pool with a rigid floating cover under a second embodiment of the present invention and which meets some variants, which are not required to be present altogether in a embodiment of the invention, wherein the cover is shown in a lifted or operating situation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As appreciated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the present invention is applied to a pool 1 with one or more side walls 2 and with a bottom base 3, preferably horizontal, whether this bottom base shares a single plane or a plurality of staged planes of common occurrence in pools of variable depth. The rigid and submersible floating cover of the present invention comprises one or more substantially rigid deck slabs 4, which upper surface is substantially flat and horizontal. This substantially rigid deck slab 4 may be of any solid material, simple or compound, meeting the characteristics of flexural strength and shearing strength appropriate to the alternative use to be given to the surface. Among other manufacture materials of the substantially rigid deck slab 4, reinforced concrete is mentioned, as well as honeycomb-type boards executed in materials resistant to the pool liquid, such as plastic, etc.

Under (or in-between) the substantially rigid deck slab 4 the active floating means 5 are found, that is to say, those of controllable floatability by replacing a less thicker fluid (flotation condition) with a thicker fluid (immersion condition). These active floating means 5 may be mechanically tied to the lower surface of the substantially rigid deck slab 4, or they may be partially held in that deck slab 4 by appropriate cavities or they may be totally integrated to the substantially rigid deck slab 4 as chambers. FIG. 3 shows these three types of options for active floaters 5, without this meaning that the invention should necessarily use all these alternatives in the same embodiment.

Usually—although not being limited to this—the active floating means 5 used in the present invention are of the type widely used in different industrial applications (this is the reason why they are not depicted in the drawings) and consist in rigid or flexible containers, generally with two types of valves: one or more valves for the inlet and outlet of pool liquid; and one or more valves for the inlet and outlet of air, generally blown from a compressor. These active floating means 5 could be also of the type with just one valve as in the case of inflated flexible floaters.

Every rigid deck or slab 4 associated with its corresponding means of active floating means 5 defines a unit of rigid floating and submersible deck slab. In order to prevent the units of rigid and submersible floating deck slab from oscillating, each one of them is provided with removable supporting means 6 at the bottom of the pool consisting in supporting elements 6′. These removable supporting means 6 are delivered in a minimum quantity of three (3) and in such a configuration that their ends of the same side (upper or lower) are not co-linear, so that their upper ends may define a fastening plane in the deck slab or rigid plate 4 and their lower ends may define a supporting plane at the base or bottom 3 of the pool.

The upper ends of the removable supporting means 6 go through the corresponding rigid plate 4, so that they may be accessed from the outside or from the surface, both to fasten these ends rigidly to said rigid plate 4 when the unit is acting as floating deck slab and to unlock them and be able to remove them from their position to submerse the deck slab. The way of making this fastening for the upper ends of the removable supporting means 6 is beyond the reach of the objectives of the present invention; it could be any mechanic device available, as for instance a bayonet-type attachment or threaded attachment among others.

The removal of the removable supporting means 6 may consist in withdrawing them axially outwards or sink them.

In the case that the removable supporting means 6 are those which become deactivated by sinking them, FIG. 3 shows an arrangement of supporting elements 6′ having their respective ropes 9 and 10 in their ends and ballast 11 incorporated in the lower end of the supporting element 6′. The free ends of these ropes may be accessed from the surface. In order to remove a supporting element 6′ after releasing their fastenings, rope 10 is pulled from the lower ends allowing rope 9 of the upper end to loosen, but without its end leaving the surface. Inversely, to install a supporting element 6′, the rope 9 is pulled from the upper end allowing rope 10 of the lower end to leave the surface. Ballast 11 of the lower ends of the supporting element prevents an undesirable oscillation while the supporting element 6′ is lifted.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, the basic components making up this invention have been illustrated. But certain additional arrangements can be considered which allow greater stability for the floating deck slabs and a more controlled immersion. The units of rigid and submersible floating deck slabs shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 have been illustrated as independent each other, which involves providing little allowance between them, so that they do not rub each other when being submersed. FIG. 3 illustrates a variant in the deck slabs or rigid plates 4 consisting in alternating the inclination of its side walls, so that these rigid plates 4 are alternatively inverted trunk-pyramidal acting as wedges each other by the thrust action, thus reducing the allowance between these neighboring plates. According to this embodiment and due to the alternating geometry of wedges of rigid plates 4, the immersion operation for the floating deck slab of the present invention should be done by sinking the units of floating deck slabs formed by rigid plates first, which upper base is smaller than its bottom base, which are the ones unlocking the wedge effect produced by the thrust.

Another variant of the present invention illustrated in FIG. 3 is to provide the rigid plates or deck slabs 4 with passive means of flotation 7, that is to say, constant floating means allowing to offsetting the high density each rigid plate or deck slab 4 could have, thus reducing the necessary time and energy to change the floatability condition (flotation/immersion) of the deck slab assembly of the present invention. These passive floating means 7 may for example consist in an alveolar material integrated and spread in the rigid plate or deck slab 4 or in low density bodies (whether a uniform light material or a hollow body). The passive floating means 7 may be mechanically tied to the lower surface of the substantially rigid deck slab 4, as chambers attached to the corresponding rigid plate or deck slab.

Still another variant to the present invention and not illustrated herein, consists in providing the pool's internal upper perimeters and the side edges of the rigid and submersible floating deck slabs with removable locking means, such as latches and fasteners allowing to tying or holding the deck slabs to the pool and/or between them. The mechanic detail of the removable locking means is beyond the reach of the present invention, being able to consist in any type available in the state of the art and used in other applications.

In any of the embodiments of the present invention, the substantially rigid deck slab 4 may have variable thickness, that is to say, apparent as regards the external look of the deck slab 4, regardless to the internal cavities it may contain. In the case that the apparent thickness of the deck slab 4 is variable, this will express in its lower surface by presenting for instance greater thickness in the center in order to ensure greater stability when immersing the deck slab 4.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the supporting elements 6′ are shaped in such a way that the substantially rigid deck slabs 6 may support on them and they are resistant enough to support said deck slabs 4 even though the water level goes down and the thrust action is no longer exerted. Under this embodiment, floatability of the substantially rigid deck slabs 4 obtained by the active floating means 5 and eventually by the passive floating means 7 is used only to place the assembly of deck slabs in its upper or lifted position and in its retracted position when resting on the bottom of the pool. It is evident that in order to change the condition of the assembly of deck slabs, it will be necessary to fill the pool in order to use the thrust and the controllable floatability of the invention's components. 

1. A rigid and submersible floating cover for pools, wherein said cover comprises: a) one or more substantially rigid decks slabs (4) with its upper surface being substantially flat and horizontal when floating; b) active floating means (5) or of controllable flotability arranged below or in-between said substantially rigid deck slabs; thus a unit of rigid and submersible floating deck slab is defined, made up of one of said substantially rigid deck slabs and by said one or more active floating means; and c) removable supporting means (6) for said substantially rigid deck slabs at the bottom of the pool, which are removably associated with each one of them, with said supporting means consisting in supporting elements (6′) resting on the bottom of the pool, with each one of said substantially rigid deck slabs having at least three of said supporting elements distributed in a non-colinear arrangement for their supporting ends defining a supporting plane.
 2. A rigid and submersible floating cover according to claim 1, wherein each of said substantially rigid deck slabs has its perimeter walls with an alternated inclination, so that said rigid deck slabs happen to have an alternatively inverted trunk-pyramidal shape, acting as wedges each other due to the thrust action.
 3. A rigid and submersible floating cover according to any of claims 1 or 2, wherein in addition said substantially rigid deck slabs are associated with passive floating means (7) of constant flotability.
 4. A rigid and submersible floating cover according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the upper internal perimeter of the pool and the side edges of said rigid and submersible floating deck slabs assemblies are provided with removable locking means, such as latches or fasteners, thus allowing tying or supporting said deck slabs to the pool and, optionally, each other.
 5. A rigid and submersible floating cover according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein said substantially rigid floating deck slab is made of reinforced concrete.
 6. A rigid and submersible floating cover according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein said substantially rigid deck slab consists in a honeycomb-type board.
 7. A rigid and submersible floating cover according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein said active floating means are of the type in which their flotability is controlled by replacing a less thick fluid with a thicker fluid for its immersion and inversely for its flotation.
 8. A rigid and submersible floating cover according to any of claims 1 to 7, wherein said active and/or passive floating means are mechanically tied to the lower surface of said substantially rigid deck slab.
 9. A rigid and submersible floating cover according to any of claims 1 to 7, wherein said active and/or passive floating means are partially withheld in said substantially rigid deck slab by appropriate cavities.
 10. A rigid and submersible floating cover according to any of claims 1 to 7, wherein said active and/or passive floating means are totally incorporated to said substantially rigid deck slab forming chambers.
 11. A rigid and submersible floating cover according to any of claims 1 to 10, wherein the upper ends of sad removable supporting means go through the corresponding rigid plate, so that they may be accessed from the outside or the surface in order to allow for its fastening and removal.
 12. A rigid and submersible floating cover according to claim 11, wherein said removable supporting means are removed by pulling them axially outwards.
 13. A rigid and submersible floating cover according to claim 11, wherein said removable supporting means are removed by sinking them.
 14. A rigid and submersible floating cover according to claim 13, wherein in each end, said supporting elements have their respective ropes (9, 10) and ballast (11) built-in its corresponding lower end, with the free ends of said ropes being accessible from the surface. 